Encyclopedias and Other Special Databases - ECE 333T - Engineering Communication - LibGuides at University of Texas at Austin

Special Databases for Topic Summaries, Statistical Information, & Properties

Among the library databases are products which don't index articles but instead provide topic overviews, explanations of concepts, and definitions of terms. Additionally, this category of special databases includes products giving materials properties, and statistical information. Highlights include:

AccessEngineering This link opens in a new window
Includes valuable handbooks for engineers. For example, "Sensors Handbook" and "Antenna Engineering Handbook."
Updated regularly. Provides access to hundreds of McGraw Hill handbooks, textbooks and monographs across all engineering fields, a materials properties visualization tool, downloadable spreadsheets, and instructional videos.
ASM (American Society for Metals) Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
Properties, phase diagrams, and encyclopedia information about materials.
Updated regularly. Includes the complete content of all twenty volumes of the ASM Handbook plus two ASM Desk Editions.
Part of ASM Materials Information which includes the ASM Alloy Center Online and the ASM Phase Diagrams.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Indexes the contents of many subject encyclopedias and then provides the full-text.
Updated regularly. A database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources. Fully searchable across all files. A list of sources included in our subscription is available.
For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide
Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology This link opens in a new window
A specialist encyclopedia for engineers and chemists.
Contains authoritative articles on chemical substances—including their properties, manufacturing, and uses; industrial processes and unit operations in chemical engineering; fundamentals and scientific subjects related to the field; environmental and health issues concerning chemical technology. (Due to rising costs of scholarly information and a diminished collection budget, this resource was recently evaluated. We will continue to have access to this resource but articles that are updated after January 2018 will not be available to us.)
Statista This link opens in a new window
Searchable and downloadable statistical information from government agencies, trade groups, and industry sources.
Statista provides statistical data from thousands of institutions and sources. It provides access to data from market and opinion research institutions, as well as from business organizations and government agencies.
Statista includes data on more than 85,000 topics from 18,000 sources. About 20 percent of the total data in Statista comes from sources available free online, such as the World Bank and the U.S. Census, but the data also includes numerous exclusive sources which include industry, marketing, and trade groups. Much of the data is related to marketing, demographic, government and industry information, and is international in scope. Data can be downloaded in JPG, PowerPoint and Excel.
While historical and time series data are not a focus of Statista, the metadata about each table provides all the necessary information to go to the table’s source, where historical information may be available.